I have a test workstation in the office that I use – well, for testing stuff. I hardly ever use a browser on the machine and had forgotten, actually, that Internet Explorer was set as the default browser.So, today I got the browser ballot screen which has a limited release currently in the UK & France. It looks like this:
Hmm. Have we not been told, for years, not to click on links on strange popups that appear on our computers? Especially ones that are not identified in any way and ask us to ensure we are connected to the internet before it, presumably, goes and downloads a tranche of spyware to our machines.
Even worse – when you click the “close” button to get rid of that screen, it ignores you completely and proceeds to the ballot screen itself – which, again, is not really identified in any way. You can then close that screen – but you’re then told the system will do the same thing EVERY time you reboot your machine until you make a choice.
Now, I know Microsoft are on a hiding-to-nothing with this. Nothing they do will appear to be right – but, in this case, I think they’re being astoundingly clever. Because it looks so scary – and we’ve been told not to trust stuff that appears randomly on our PCs without warning – people will do nothing and never actually make the conscious choice for a browser.
Well done, Microsoft. Anti-competitive to the end.
Filed under: digital, technology
